Re:Big Tech are supposed to be the plumbers, not patricians ...
by Turing_Machine on Sunday August 08, 2021 @07:05PM
(#28111031)
> In plain English, there’s precedent in the constitution and law for the government to regulate business if it promotes the general welfare.
There are a lot of things that "private entities" aren't allowed to do when doing business with the public in the United States.
They can't discriminate based on race, or religion, or national origin, or handicaps, or (in civilized areas) sexual orientation.
It wasn't always that way. At one time all of those things were perfectly legal. But we, as a society, after a great deal of argument (sometimes contentious) decided that they were wrong and changed the laws to prohibit those things.
We're having essentially the same arguments about online speech right now.
Not a lawyer, but I wonder if the Commerce Clause and Necessary and Proper clause give regulatory power to the government under the guise of promoting the general welfare. After all, this has been applied to commodities in the past, even when said commodities weren’t even used in trade/commerce.
In plain English, there’s precedent in the constitution and law for the government to regulate business if it promotes the general welfare.